Mayor hopes bypass part of budget

Muswellbrook's Mayor says there will be enormous disappointment from the community if the long awaited Muswellbrook Bypass is not funded in tonight's federal budget.

The proposed route would bypass Muswellbrook to the east, taking through-traffic on the New England Highway off Muswellbrook's main street, reducing noise and making roads in the town safer for drivers and pedestrians.

Councillor Martin Rush says Federal Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon has previously promised the project would qualify for funding through the Minerals Resources Rent Tax (MRRT) but no further details have been given.

"Why say in May last year that they're to be produced shortly and not have them ready to go?"

"They really ought to have been ready to go by now and certainly there'll be enormous disappointment in the community, if the Government has said before an election that a bypass would qualify for those funds, if in truth that fund is never created," he said.

The Upper Hunter Shire is hoping a rail overpass for Scone will also be funded through the Regional Infrastructure Fund.

Councillor Rush says Upper Hunter residents should not have to keep waiting for important projects.

"The federal government and state government keep producing documents, telling us that we need to create this employment land, that we need to create the space to manage the supply and capacity issues for the growth of the coal industry," he said.

"Yet, the main street continues to labour under that enormous disadvantage of having through-traffic from the national highway through it and that's just not acceptable."

You have no doubt been hearing a lot about the Paris Agreement and know that it pertains to climate change, but are too embarrassed at this stage to ask for an overall explanation of what it's all about.